Apple’s Q3 profits, iPad sales dip, while iPhone sales reach over 31M

Apple on Tuesday reported fiscal third-quarter revenues of $35.3 billion and profits of $6.9 billion, or $7.47 per share. The revenue number is basically even with Apple’s results from a year ago, but its profits were off by almost $2 billion. Revenues were mostly in line with Wall Street’s expectations of $35.09 billion and slightly above its earnings per share expectation of around $7.31. Apple itself had predicted revenues between $33.5 billion and $35.5 billion.

While Mac and iPad shipments dropped from the same quarter a year ago, iPhone shipments actually grew 20 percent:

The iPad sales dip was mostly expected since the April-June quarter a year ago was the first quarter of sales for the third-generation iPad. Apple skipped a spring iPad release this year after surprisingly releasing the fourth-generation of the device last October.

Still, CEO Tim Cook was predictably upbeat: “We are especially proud of our record June quarter iPhone sales of over 31 million and the strong growth in revenue from iTunes, Software and Services,” he said in a statement.

He also inevitably looked ahead to what Apple has coming up: “We are really excited about the upcoming releases of iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks, and we are laser-focused and working hard on some amazing new products that we will introduce in the fall and across 2014.”

For the July-September quarter, which for Apple will close out its fiscal year, the company forecast revenue between $34 billion and $37 billion and for the second quarter in a row did not estimate or give a range for expected earnings per share.

Wall Street reacted positively to Apple’s earnings, sending the stock up by nearly 4 percent in after-hours trading to $435.